Well made, well acted, but far too depressing for me to really appreciate.

That makes about as much sense to me as "water is dry."

I don't like spending time in the misery of others and seldom learn anything of value in time spent that way. Particularly when the behavior of those in miserable circumstances ensures that there is no hope of things getting better. In person at least I might be able to offer some sympathy or diversion, but I can't do those things for someone on screen.

MGamesCook and Ken are both right. But my own personality wants to see someone fighting back, even if they eventually lose.

Fri May 02, 2014 8:43 am

peng

Director

Joined: Sun Oct 07, 2012 10:42 pmPosts: 1478Location: Bangkok

Re: Last Movie You Watched

Knife in the Water (1962)

An impressive debut, to be sure: with most of the story taking place on a small yacht, Roman Polanski manages the film be visually dynamic and evokes a feeling of confinement throughout, often framing the three leads together, even in scenes on land. However, it's one of those films that are more interesting to dissect afterwards than be actually engaging in the moment. Its themes and symbolic images are strong, but the story itself is rather dry. We observe how Polanski expertly uses objects (knife, mast) and character placement (often in relation to the sole female) to convey things about male insecurity and generation gap. But that's it: we just observe from the distance, the story never invite us to be involved in any of the three characters. It's certainly worthwhile, but feels more like a great-director-to-be's exercise more than a full feature.

Fri May 02, 2014 12:13 pm

peng

Director

Joined: Sun Oct 07, 2012 10:42 pmPosts: 1478Location: Bangkok

Re: Last Movie You Watched

Gloria (2013)

One of those slice-of-life dramedies that relies almost wholly on the central performance, and Paulina García beautifully delivers. I first fear from the opening this might be heading towards miserablism drama, but the titular character is too infectious a presence to drag the film down to that. I imagine this is how Happy-Go-Lucky's Poppy would be like if she gets to middle age and has some life disappointments color her eternal optimism down by one-third (which still leaves a lot of that going around). The director is also smart enough never to let the film around her overwhelm the character. It may lack the urgency to stand out fully, but Gloria's characterization and performance are reason enough to recommend it. 7.5/10

Dead Ringers (1988)

This is my third Cronenberg after A History of Violence and The Fly, and it seems I haven't hit upon one of his full-body-horror, crazy shows yet. This is really restrained, feeling like it's patiently building towards some grand finale, with the most vivid image confined to a dream sequence and the disturbing stuff mostly implied than shown (which can draw many squirms still). Appropriate, because it allows the best special effect of the film, Jeremy Irons' performance, to shine fully. Apart from some moments where the twins' minds start melding, there is not much doubt whose personality we're looking at, even though they don't look that different physically. As the film progresses, and one or two people's psyche start deteriorating, his performance is an absolute anchor, full of heart and pathos. Speaking of which, I can't remember the last time I've been so saddened by a horror film. The final image is simultaneously tender and devastating. 9/10

Sun May 04, 2014 1:56 am

unwindfilms

Director

Joined: Sat Feb 18, 2012 5:22 pmPosts: 1057Location: Hobart Australia

Re: Last Movie You Watched

Bad Neighbours3 StarsThis comedy is about a young couple with a newborn baby that suffered the nightmarish situation of having a wild college fraternity to just move next door. I am not a Seth Rotgen fan (I hate him since his Green Hornet movie) and I went to see this one a bit reluctant and started in a really slow pace but as soon as this neighbours situation escalate up to a truly war then some really hilarious moments came up. Seth Rotgen and Australian Rose Byrne (who I enjoyed in Bridesmaid) are the young couple and Zac Efron is the frat president and all are very good and sometimes pretty funny here but watch out the R rating is well earned !

I personally love Seth Rogen and thought he was great in Green Hornet, anyways Neighbors looks pretty funny.

Sun May 04, 2014 2:49 am

ilovemovies

Producer

Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2009 11:04 amPosts: 2271

Re: Last Movie You Watched

I'm looking forward to Neighbors. I've always been a fan of both Rogen and especially the lovely Byrne. Plus, Zach Efron has come ALONG way since High School Musical.

Sun May 04, 2014 3:52 am

MGamesCook

Producer

Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2012 7:44 pmPosts: 2050

Re: Last Movie You Watched

ilovemovies wrote:

I'm looking forward to Neighbors. I've always been a fan of both Rogen and especially the lovely Byrne. Plus, Zach Efron has come ALONG way since High School Musical.

What films has he been in that you were ecstatic about?

Sun May 04, 2014 5:10 am

ilovemovies

Producer

Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2009 11:04 amPosts: 2271

Re: Last Movie You Watched

I'm not saying that I'm ecstatic with anything he's done. But I do think he was very good and appealing earlier this year in That Awkward Moment. He's made some interesting choices in recent years (Liberal Arts, Parkland, The Paperboy, etc.). He's just been evolving into a decent young actor IMO.

Sun May 04, 2014 5:26 am

Gwaihir

Second Unit Director

Joined: Sun Dec 16, 2012 12:14 amPosts: 283

Re: Last Movie You Watched

CasualDad wrote:

JamesKunz wrote:

CasualDad wrote:

Well made, well acted, but far too depressing for me to really appreciate.

That makes about as much sense to me as "water is dry."

I don't like spending time in the misery of others and seldom learn anything of value in time spent that way. Particularly when the behavior of those in miserable circumstances ensures that there is no hope of things getting better. In person at least I might be able to offer some sympathy or diversion, but I can't do those things for someone on screen.

MGamesCook and Ken are both right. But my own personality wants to see someone fighting back, even if they eventually lose.

What I found interesting about how the characters behave in Requiem for a Dream was that they weren't miserable for most of it. One of the reasons it's harrowing to watch is that we can see the downward spiral, but they're blissfully unaware that they're self-destructive It's actually a very perceptive look at the pernicious nature of drug addiction. For me Connelly's last scene was the most haunting: as degraded as she was, she was in heaven because she'd scored enough drugs to get her fix.

Sun May 04, 2014 10:40 am

Blonde Almond

Cinematographer

Joined: Sun Oct 07, 2012 2:41 pmPosts: 505Location: The Desert

Re: Last Movie You Watched

Watched Blue Ruin last night. It's a terrible cliché to refer to something as "Hitchcockian," but this is one of those thrillers that truly delights in playing the audience like a piano. Consistently intense throughout it's brisk 90-minute running time, with the occasional streak of gallows humor thrown in to keep things from getting too morose. Fans of the 2008 "neo-noir" The Square (and I know there are at least a few here) would probably appreciate this.

_________________"The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool."Letterboxd Profile

Sun May 04, 2014 10:42 am

JamesKunz

Critic

Joined: Wed Jul 29, 2009 9:35 amPosts: 6010Location: Easton, MD

Re: Last Movie You Watched

Blonde Almond wrote:

Fans of the 2008 "neo-noir" The Square (and I know there are at least a few here) would probably appreciate this.

YOU RANG?

_________________I'm lithe and fierce as a tiger

Sun May 04, 2014 10:49 am

peng

Director

Joined: Sun Oct 07, 2012 10:42 pmPosts: 1478Location: Bangkok

Re: Last Movie You Watched

Last Year at Marienbad (1961)

I always go into many acclaimed "art house" films mentally prepared on some level that I might be let down, but it seems I've often stumbled into most films of that type in the right phase of my movie-going (save maybe for my first watch of The Shining, which was an unfortunate slog to this 10-year-old), until now. And I really liked Resnais' Hiroshima Mon Amour too, which made it a surprise that this didn't work for me, at all, except for the stunning design and cinematography.

The thing is, the former has a real emotional core from a love story that is heartfelt and tangible, with the director's formal experiments only reserved to the leads' head space and their memories. Marienbad deals with similar theme as well, of how memory can be linked to and distorted by a place (at least that's what I got from it), but this time the narrative itself is folded twice, thrice, and many more times to emulate that. Some things work, like the cuts from one place to another while the characters remain in the same pose, and the visual delight of the symmetrical garden with those impossible shadows. But most of the time, the artificiality of the whole thing has an increasingly distancing and distracting effect to my involvement, the leads' interaction, and any emotional logic it attempts. By about the third or fourth time the man keeps pestering the woman to "try to remember", my interest already drifts far away and I mostly wonder why she hasn't called the security to haul his ass out already. 5/10

Sun May 04, 2014 1:09 pm

PeachyPete

Cinematographer

Joined: Sun Oct 07, 2012 8:09 pmPosts: 638

Re: Last Movie You Watched

Blonde Almond wrote:

Watched Blue Ruin last night. It's a terrible cliché to refer to something as "Hitchcockian," but this is one of those thrillers that truly delights in playing the audience like a piano. Consistently intense throughout it's brisk 90-minute running time, with the occasional streak of gallows humor thrown in to keep things from getting too morose. Fans of the 2008 "neo-noir" The Square (and I know there are at least a few here) would probably appreciate this.

I watched this the other night too! I like the The Square comparison, even if it's not quite as good. It's not quite a deconstruction of a revenge film, but it's definitely a deglamorization (which probably isn't a word) of one. It takes the idea of a fairly normal, mostly intelligent guy who feels he has to take action and takes it to its logical conclusion. Pretty good movie.

Sun May 04, 2014 6:17 pm

nitrium

Director

Joined: Sat Oct 13, 2012 2:42 pmPosts: 1470Location: New Zealand

Re: Last Movie You Watched

Pompeii (2014)http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1921064/I was naturally mentally prepared for a train-wreck of Pearl Harbor proportions going into this, with he premise of star-crossed lovers (the Celtic slave Kit Harrington and the daughter of top nobleman Emily Browning who is also coveted by the evil Roman senator Kiefer Sutherland) with the backdrop of imminent doom from Mount Vesuvius. Incidentally, I find it somewhat surprising there seems to be a TOTAL lack of actual Italians in a movie set primarily in Italy. Anyway, so what we have here is TV's Rome x 2000's Gladiator x 1997's Dante's Peak. And it's all a lot better than I thought it would be. The PG-13 fight scenes were convincing (although not quite as good as those in TV's Vikings) and the death and destruction following the inevitable eruption was pretty well done with by and large solid special effects. Was even a bit surprised by the ending in which:

Entertaining for the entire running length, and you can't really ask for more than that from this type of film.6.5/10.

Unfortunately I can't really fit this one into JamesKunz May challenge unless I go on a Paul W.S. Anderson binge .

Sun May 04, 2014 6:19 pm

MGamesCook

Producer

Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2012 7:44 pmPosts: 2050

Re: Last Movie You Watched

Quote:

Entertaining for the entire running length, and you can't really ask for more than that from this type of film.

Precisely! Actually, I don't think this is one of Anderson's absolute best. But it has a respectable consistency, and it never aims for deliberate, in your face cheese. It trusts its audience to have a default, basic interest in the genre, which is the main thing I ask from this type of film. And it's never boring and isn't overlong.

Sun May 04, 2014 7:20 pm

JamesKunz

Critic

Joined: Wed Jul 29, 2009 9:35 amPosts: 6010Location: Easton, MD

Re: Last Movie You Watched

nitrium wrote:

Pompeii (2014) by and large solid special effects. [

Man you must have low standards for special effects.

_________________I'm lithe and fierce as a tiger

Sun May 04, 2014 8:21 pm

Sexual Chocolate

Director

Joined: Sun Jun 20, 2010 4:04 pmPosts: 1834Location: New Hampshire

Re: Last Movie You Watched

Maximum Overdrive

There are good-bad movies and bad-bad movies. Stephen King's only directorial effort is very much the former. The plot is simple and idiotic: machines come to life and attack humans. This film is so stupidly entertaining that it's almost shameful. It's got everything - one of the best opening scenes of any movie ever, a lot of humor, gratuitous violence, and a soundtrack by AC/DC. What is not to love?

_________________Death is pretty finalI'm collecting vinylI'm gonna DJ at the end of the world.

Sun May 04, 2014 8:32 pm

nitrium

Director

Joined: Sat Oct 13, 2012 2:42 pmPosts: 1470Location: New Zealand

Re: Last Movie You Watched

JamesKunz wrote:

nitrium wrote:

Pompeii (2014) by and large solid special effects.

Man you must have low standards for special effects.

Maybe I do. Maybe. I. Do.

Mon May 05, 2014 1:33 am

MGamesCook

Producer

Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2012 7:44 pmPosts: 2050

Re: Last Movie You Watched

JamesKunz wrote:

nitrium wrote:

Pompeii (2014) by and large solid special effects. [

Man you must have low standards for special effects.

Not as low as those who tolerate Marvel. You have to draw the line somewhere. Though the special effects in Resident Evil 5 were admittedly better.

Mon May 05, 2014 4:05 am

JamesKunz

Critic

Joined: Wed Jul 29, 2009 9:35 amPosts: 6010Location: Easton, MD

Re: Last Movie You Watched

MGamesCook wrote:

JamesKunz wrote:

nitrium wrote:

Pompeii (2014) by and large solid special effects. [

Man you must have low standards for special effects.

Not as low as those who tolerate Marvel. You have to draw the line somewhere. Though the special effects in Resident Evil 5 were admittedly better.

Thank you for saying that. They can spend 200 million dollars all they damn well please; their pixels still look like pixels

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